By Nathan Luck
RMIT has beaten five other universities to win the annual classroom-based SAP ERPsim competitive business game, now in its second year. The announcement was made by Lindsay Fox AO, founder and chairman of the Linfox group, the largest privately owned transport and logistics company in the southern hemisphere.
Under the direction of acclaimed SAP Mentor Paul Hawking, senior lecturer in information systems at Victoria University, teams of four students from Monash, Swinburne, Deakin, LaTrobe, Victoria universities and RMIT ran the full business cycle of a small fictional company producing muesli cereal, learning how supply chain efficiency can lead to profitable business.
“This game focuses on how things work together and allows participants to immediately see the effects of their decision-making,” said Hawking. “Just as in real life, they pay for poor decisions or those not made in time.”
Each team was assigned a volunteer mentor from Linfox, and tasked with building the business plan for six varieties of muesli, through which they managed everything from the supply of raw materials, marketing, pricing the products and tracking orders as well as financial outcomes.
Under the guidance of their Linfox mentor, the teams interacted with suppliers, customers and internal groups using standard SAP reports and dashboards to make and execute business decisions, develop teamwork skills and gain valuable hands-on experience adopting software into the supply chain process to increase productivity within a workforce.
Competing to win the biggest market share by buying raw materials, managing budgets, developing production and distribution schedules, and selling products, the teams were required to respond to changing variables such as an increase in grain prices or a decrease in the foreign exchange rate, with every 25 minutes in real life simulating 30 days.
RMIT was selected as the winner based on achieving the greatest profit margin.
The one-day event was held at VU’s Flinders Street Campus, with Fox also addressing key issues facing the industry including the impact of carbon tax, legislation and green supply chain management and efficiency.
“SAP ERPsim was designed to make training an exciting learning experience for students using a game-based approach played in a live SAP environment. It provides a compelling way for the next generation of future SAP specialists to harness the power of SAP solutions in their day to day activities,” said Matthew Spicer, senior education partner, SAP Australia & New Zealand.
Now used by more than 100 universities worldwide to teach graduate and postgraduate students concepts of ERP software systems, the simulation was designed by Baton Simulations, the commercial partner of business university HEC Montreal in Canada and its ERPsim labs, for companies to produce a compelling, competitive and dynamic learning environment that directly reflects real SAP processes.
“SAP ERPsim has transformed the traditional SAP education process for students and businesses to undertake an active learning experience. It creates a safe environment for businesses to have increased knowledge of basic navigation and operation of SAP, enhances business acumen and provides the skills for sharper business decisions,” said Spicer.
